But most American magazines have a strict business/editorial divide, and it would be somewhat surprising if the business side of the publication were making a hamfisted attempt to meddle with editorial decisionmaking over something like this. (Important though it no doubt seems.) And while I'm not really in a position judge the merits of point #2, it does seem to me that previous Most Beautiful People have been given the honor based on something other than beauty narrowly construed.
This article available online at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2009/05/let-tim-geithner-be-beautiful/17089/
